Custom guitar shapes

  • Thread starter Thread starter asi9
  • Start date Start date
A

asi9

New member
I made a post a long time ago about weird ass guitar shapes, and someone mentioned that Jackson does custom guitars in whatever shape you want. But how much would this end up costing? And is there anyone else that does this? I'm wanting to get a guitar that is like neon green or something, and the body shaped liked a random blob.... a shape possibly resembling a fried egg. Needs to look absolutely stupid. If anybody's ever stopped by our band's website and/or heard our tunes, then you'll know exactly why (www.psychostick.com). Thanks!
 
asi-
there's a guy, Ed Roman, who builds top notch guitars and will do any shape you want. He won't come cheap because he doesn't build crap. But he will deliver anything you want. You will have to call him or go to his shop, he doesnt answer emails. I don't personally have one of his guitars, but I have seen his work and its sweet.

155 Shortwoods Road
New Fairfield, CT. 06812
203-746-4995
 
I'll second that.

This guy has by far the most impressive guitar website I've seen. I have spent hours reading the wealth of information he makes available, and he seems to speak his mind about everything from guitar pricing ploys to manufacturing quality.

Just check it out and you'll get lost in the hyper-linked maze:

http://www.edromanguitars.com/
 
My $.02 on ed roman. great site, very informative, i have spent hours on it and he really hits on the major points on what is wrong with the music instrument business. I was all about the site and ready to pledge my allegiance to his way of doing business. I then called and when I got in touch with him he wasn't the "warmest" person, not that you need that though. He seemed really kinda bothered. I'm sure he gets a ton of calls and is a pretty slim operation in terms of people. I'm sure he has to often drop what he is doing and keep answering the phone. But, I was ready to buy and he had the best price but he just really turned me off. I just got a sketchy vibe. I later read comments on harmony central, and a few other places on the internet, from folks who had custom guitars made and had major problems with them. If you live out east and can drive to CT to his shop and showroom that seems like your best bet. You'll get a better idea of his work and his attitude.
 
Aaaaaaack, well it's a slightly long drive from Phoenix, DOH!!!
 
D'oh. I didn't know you live in AZ. Then I would not reccommend using Ed Roman, as it would be at least as expenisve as say Jackson, which I think is in CA. Have you thought about making your own body? You can buy really good blanks from companies like warmoth (and many others). you can choose lots of differnet woods at different price points. If you don't want to build the entire guitar, you can bring the body to someone local to have it assembled with other parts. I know applying a finish (depending on the type) can be a difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. Going to someone to have this done is probably a good bet if you want a complex finish. Depending on the neck, electonics and hardware, you can get a great guitar for I would say 50-75% of what companies like Ed Roman would charge.
 
I checked out warmoth.com and that looks pretty cool.... I wouldn't mind building my own, but I wouldn't even BEGIN to know how to, what tools, what to do, etc, etc. Do you know where some good resources to do so are? Then I could build like, more than one guitar and not always use the same one......
 
The thing to keep in mind is *quality*.
If you or I made a guitar, probably being our first try, it would most likely be a hunk of crap. Give the job to a company, like Jackson, and it will come out more like a real guitar should. Give it to a master craftsman like Roman, and you'll get a great guitar.

Ed seems like kind of a cranky old man and he doesn't like bothering to talk to kids. I read some of that stuff on Harmony-Central and it looks like it was either fake info (signed by anonymous? yeah right) or written by 16 year old kids. I am in process of buying a guitar from him (not one of his, i wish) and I'll report how it went when its all done.
-H2H

OH PS- I've found that in most big cities you can find a few luthiers locally who are alot better than factories at making guitars and who will work with you. It may just take some looking.
 
Ok, building your own guitar is a whole nother can of beans. Depending on what you want to do it could be a relatively easy job and get increasingly complex. Go to harmonycentral for building resources:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/other.html

Here there are many, many sites giving advice, products, etc.

The first guitar I "built" was relatively easy and fairly inexpensive (<$500). I love it and it is still one of my favorites. I really assembled it rather that built it. I had a neck I really liked and bought a beautiful warmoth ask body. I then did some routing, but in pickups from another guitar, installed the bridge, put on a basic clear coat satin finish (sprayed on).

The particular areas of guitar building which I think are fairly difficult include:
*the body's finish - if you want a hard, high gloss, or car-coat type finish
*cutting the nut slots
*building a neck

These are things I have not ventured into, though you will find others on this site with considerable experience. At this point in my life, I don't mind outsourcing these tasks to professionals. Mistakes in these areas could really mess up your guitar - its sound, look, feel.

Other than these, I think it is fun and rewarding to build your own guitar. One thing to remember is that these guitars would never be "worth" anything in the sense of collectors, versus a custom job by a known builder, or something off the shelf. But I think guitars are to be played and you really learn quite a bit about what goes into making a guitar work well and sound good.
 
Hard2Hear - I hope your purchase goes well with Ed. My post wasn't meant to disparage Ed, just to present my experiences. I still may visit his compund to see for myself. I do think ordering any guitar by phone, especially custom, is a difficult proposition at best, and bound to be a dissapointment at worst - whether it is from Ed or anyone else. From a business perspective I 110% agree with where he is coming from.

I am not sure if you were referring to me or not but I am not a "kid" - I am an experienced player/buyer of guitars, and an intermediate builder.

IMHO - I think you can build a quality guitar your first time out, depending on what areas you take on yourself. I thought this might be a good route as spending big bucks on a "fried egg" guitar could be costly if it - doesn't come out well (ever hear or play a fried egg? -- hee hee) or if asi9's tastes change and he no longer wants to play a fried egg, but maybe a waffle or pancake.

I do agree that certain areas could create a crap guitar, a bad finish, a bad neck, cutting the body too big or too small, bad nut, etc.

I also agree that most cities will have a few luthiers that will work with you in building a guitar. This is a great way to go. It is always good to have an "expert" that you can bounce ideas off of.
 
adam-
no no no, i wasn't referring to you. I was referring to the flames that I read on Harmony Central. The spelling and grammer were extermely poor, and they used words and phrases mainly spoken by kids. But what I was saying also, was that in talking to Ed he mentioned not liking to talk to kids because they never had any money and wasted his time.
And as to the building a guitar, I tried that one a few years ago and it cost me a lot of money before I realized I had no idea what I was doing !! :) Thats where I was coming from
-H2H
 
I've talked to people who've dealt with Ed Roman and everyone of them have said that it's not worth the hassle of dealing with him.

I think the Jackson Custom Shop is in Texas (correct me if I'm wrong)... anyway they make extremely high quality guitars... the cost depends on how elaborate your design is but I would of thought between $2000-3000 is probably the ball park figure for most of their custom shop guitars. I think http://www.jacksonguitars.com have a online quote form for custom guitars... this will give you the "retail" price, but you can probably knock $500-1000 of that for the "actual" price.

I've heard nothing but great things about http://www.drumcityguitarland.com in Denver as the dealer to go through to order a Jackson Custom... I know of a few people who've bought custom Jacksons through this place and have been very happy with the service...

The only thing is with the Jackson Custom Shop... be prepare to wait 6 months+ for your guitar to be made.
 
Well, it looks like Jackson would be right up your alley, if you have the budget for it. They have some off-the wall designs (gene simmons battleaxe - yeah!)

Since we are talking about a guitar in the $2000-3000 range with a six month wait, I thought I would mention klein guitars http://www.kleinelectricguitars.com. I don't know if their guitars would fit with your band's style (great site by the way --- way funny intro movie!) or not. They are often referred to as a lima bean on a stick (the guitars, not the band). They only build guitars custom to order. They are very different guitars, not for everyone, but everyone I know who has one or has played one swears by them and their customer service is said to be great.
 
Hey, those are pretty cool shaped, but still not weird enough. The custom-made path is starting to look more and more eminent....
 
In highschool my sophmore wood shop class, 2 guys made guitars, one made a electric and the other made an acoustic. it looked pretty easy the 2 hardest/longest parts where making the neck and spraying the thing. The body was the easiest part u just cut a big hunk of wood into what ever shap u want and add the electronics. From straight raw wood, he mosty used a tablesaw and a bandsaw the rest where hand tool.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top